The latest was Kathy Griffin grotesquely holding up a decapitated and bloodied head of the President of the United States, Donald Trump.

Before that was Stephen Colbert uncool, profanity-laced barrage against the President.

Even Madonna lost her sh*t and threatened to blow up the White House at the mass women’s march earlier this year.

But all this is still only the tip of the iceberg, as liberals “resist” him and extremists even riot and commit acts of violence; the investigators look to impeach him; the mass media lynches him daily; witches try to cast a mass spell on him; and even late night comedians make him into the butt of every joke and asses wisecrack.

No respect anymore.

No genuine dialogue.

No negotiation.

No compromise.

No problem-solving.

No putting the nation first.

The glove are off as tempers and politics are boiling over in Washington, D.C. and all across the nation.

As liberals and conservatives battle it out for the direction of our country.

Some may say that this is what democracy is supposed to do…

But at this extreme, this is how nations self-destruct, not govern!

Who is laughing?

Certainly those that would threaten our way of life: Russia. China. North Korea. Iran. ISIS and Al-Qaeda.

Only sane Americans are crying out for leadership to stop killing each other and instead coalesce–irrespective of right and left–and to move this nation forward stronger in the world–militarily, economically, and socially.

As we continue to beat each other senseless with new revelations of debauchery and corruption every 5 minutes on TV, our politicians are black and blue, their agendas are dead on arrival, their proposals are torn to shreds, their votes are filibustered, the parties are deadlocked, the government nearly shutdown again, and progress is nowhere to be found.

As some states talk of succession, some nutty people out there are advocating for violence to our elected leaders, and others are even calling for civil war, should it come to it.

As many have commented, civility is gone from political discourse, and instead angry and violent discord rules!

This is not a healthy democracy, but a political system being torn apart by extremists and haters.

How do we get the destructive abnormal new normal back to a fruitful normal is normal again?

So I was watching Baahubali, the highest grossing movie in India, ever.

Enjoyed the Bollywood action and pageantry and am looking forward to the sequel coming out this week.

There was one line in the movie, spoken between swordsmen that stood out to me:

“Spoken words and spilled blood can never be taken back.”

Mean and harsh word can cut like a knife and hurting someone with words or deeds, can never really be taken back.

Sure, we can ask for forgiveness and try to make amends.

But it’s like once you let the genie out the bottle, you can never really put her and keep her back in.

A veteran recently fought to have a VA hospital in Florida put the picture of the President up instead of the blank frame on the wall they had (some nonsensical notion of resistance indicating “not my president”)–the veteran said about trying to right this wrong:

“It’s like trying to put 5 pounds of baloney back in a bag that only holds 2 pounds.”

People are doing bad things and saying bad these things these days that can’t be just taken back.

Family, friends, and colleagues–are fighting it out and splitting up.

Each side tells themselves and the other that their cause is right and noble.

But how much of it is really just brainwashing, hyperbole, and politicking?

While our values as individuals and as a nation should never be put at stake, maybe we could get more done and better by working together than spilling blood–friend and friend, neighbor and neighbor. 😉

So Obamacare is failing with rates spiraling up out of control and choices narrowing for people that need good affordable healthcare.

And the Ryancare replacement plan failed to garner enough votes and has been questioned by the alt-right as not going further enough to change things for the better.

Blame the parliamentarian, blame each other, blame the Russians.

Between the two sides of the aisle, there aren’t enough centrists, and the parties won’t work together on a solution to this or anything else apparently–hence the utter catastrophic deadlock and lack of progress in Washington going on for years now!

The democrats passed Obamacare along party lines without a single Republican.

And now Ryancare similarly had not a single Democrat.

Resistance. Resistance. Resistance!

This is how polarized and ineffective our system of governing has become, when the two sides love their position and power more than they love the people of this great nation!

The Russians, Chinese, North Koreans, and Iranians didn’t have to fire a single shot…they just continued to shame our ineffectiveness with bogus deals and aggressive posturing, fed us boatloads of misinformation (“fake news”) to agitate our already divided country, and then they left us to split asunder under of our democracy’s own weight.

As the Republicans point fingers and the Democrats gloat–there is a great refrain of La La La Koosh Koosh going on–and the Superpower U.S. is looking not only asleep, but also fat, stupid and sprawled out pathetic with no where to go but up from here. 😉

As a country, we need to be very concerned at how ridiculously polarized things have gotten.

It is one thing for right and left to disagree, but still practicably negotiate, compromise, and forge a united and decided path forward.

And it is quite another for the polarization to become so deep-rooted that it becomes obstructionist to our national security and progress.

Unfortunately, we are beyond the point where large portions of the governing of this country has become fundamentally go nowhere and do nothing.

Whether from immigration control to closing Gitmo, from reducing the national debt to tax reform and robust economic growth, from funding the fight against the Zika virus to developing a meaningful space exploration and colonization program, from controlling the proliferation and dangers of weapons of mass destruction to sensible policies on gun rights/control, we are deep in political gridlock.

The result is lots of executive orders and regulations, but little significant lasting legislation, abiding decisions, or national momentum in any particular direction.

Our red lines are erased and our finish lines are grossly undefined–we are becoming a nation aimless, adrift, and without directed and meaningful goals.

As a nation, we cannot be ruled by spectrum divisiveness between Democrats and Republicans, between races, between genders, between socio-economic classes, between religions, and between the public and the police.

There are two critical things we need to bridge the huge divide that is engulfing us:

One is strong leadership with the integrity that can be respected and followed by everyone on all sides of every aisle.

Two is focused commitment to our underlying values of democracy, freedom, human rights, entrepreneurship and innovation.

When we have leadership that unites rather than divides, and we maintain our good and fundamental identity then once again, we will be able to go forward together towards peace and prosperity for not only ourselves, but ultimately the progress and good of the world. 😉